Real, honest musings about following Jesus, having Aspergers, and my art.

en plein air

Today, I went to Goldman, Missouri to paint this quaint old covered bridge. It was a perfect day to paint outside – gentle breezes, warm, but not hot, and best of all I found a shady spot in which to paint this. This was done in soft pastels. First, I walked all around the area to find a good view. Then, the smart phone came in handy to make a good composition, avoiding center lines. A few lines were drawn based on this, and then the gadget was put away.

I completed the drawing in white “charcoal” using Sennelier La Carte pastel board in the color sienna. This has a rough, toothy surface that grabs and hold on to the pastel. It is possible to layer it thickly, and get some really good intense, vibrant colors in there. NuPastels were used first – dark, earthy red for the shadow side of the

covered bridge, and a bright tomato red for the light side. I paid attention to the structures inside of the covered bridge, as well. Cooler, grayer greens were selected for the background trees, and warmer, higher chroma greens for the foreground trees, shrubs, and grass. I also blended and softened the edges of the background trees. Dark blue was lightly scumbled over the green for the darker shadow areas of the greenery. Finally, the large tree covering the left side of the bridge was left out, as the composition would benefit from an area of flat color to offset all the variations in the surrounding greenery and the sun dappling.

I love to paint bright, sunny scenes. The key to that is to use a strong value system, including darks. This supports the lighter yellow greens, pinks, peaches, etc in this landscape. I made a special point to use my blue greens as well for the shadowy areas. Can you see the contrast between the warm and cool areas?

A guy was riding his bike over the bridge. That would really add a lot, to put him in there on his bicycle, so I asked him to ride through again slowly, and he kindly obliged. He was very nice, and we talked for a while. He took some pictures of me painting.

I was born and raised in the tropics (Venezuela). Now, I’m in Missouri, USA. I really miss the tropical weather in winter! So, I decided to go to the Missouri Botanical Garden Temperate House, and paint this romantic little scene of vines trailing along a Mediterranean stucco wall. This is done in soft pastels, en plein air.